Impulses – 3 (interpretation & performance)

6(a)

In my music impulses are clearly defined and are characterized by their attack, speed and rotation. Impulses within one constellation are basically all the same pitch, although they may occur as noise.

The first requirement for the performance of impulses is to place the musicians according to the instructions in the score. A good spatial arrangement is essential for the achievement of the rotation of the impulses. The basic principle is that the musicians pass the impulse on to one another.

The impulse’s attack is always accentuated (though without exaggeration,) short, and clearly perceptible. The speed of the impulse is determined by the interval between entries. These must therefore be performed with as much rhythmic precision as possible. A rotating impulse moves clockwise or anti-clockwise, and can change direction. This will work particularly well if the musicians are aware of the direction in which the impulse is moving: where is it approaching you from, and in what direction are you going to pass it on? The rotations can assume any number of motion patterns: see the example from Axis/Ashes. An impulse can be identified in the score by a circled dynamic mark.

All other composed elements of the impulse are secondary: the held impulse tone (i.e. the tone that follows the attack,) dynamics and pitch should be performed as neutrally as possible.

Impulses are seldom tones that should be cut off! Even with short notes the attack leads to an impulse tone that ›stays floating in the air.‹ Where I have notated longer impulse tones, it is purely and simply to show that I do not want silence until the following entry.

The dynamics indicate nothing more than the average volume of an impulse tone within the context, and do not relate to the strength of the attack. In the case of rotation, the musicians take the impulses over from each other. In this process the differences and alterations in timbre are more important than the pitch, which is no more than a reminiscence of the tone which provides cohesion within this ›Klangfarbenmelodie‹ (melody of sound colours,) which incidentally possesses no melodic quality. (Translation: Robert Coupe)